What Hip-Hop or conscious group influenced your consciousness?

I have to start off with the Last Poets. My uncles who are baptist preachers now just dont what they created in 1977 when i first heard "Run Nigga"

As far as hip-hop...Public Enemy and
Afrika Bambaattaa.

BUT............

X-Clan is the group i credit with raising my Pan-Afrikanism and awareness as a young Afrikan warrior. They gave me a mental orgasim that I have searched 4 every since. They raised the consciousness of the warrior!!

"If you don't understand White Supremacy (Racism), what it is, and how it works, everything else that you understand will only confuse you" -Neely Fuller, Jr.
"The apparent triumph of the civil rights movement [...] has led us to this age when millions of young Blacks not only don’t know their rich history of rebellion and resistance; they don’t wanna know." -Mumia Abu-Jamal

Last Poets and Gil Scott set the bench mark for what type of Hip Hop I would have a taste for.

Peace to all...

I forgot to mention Eric B. & Rakim too. "In The Ghetto" is my favorite song from them, I like Rakim's flow & the beat fits it perfectly.

Peace.

"If you don't understand White Supremacy (Racism), what it is, and how it works, everything else that you understand will only confuse you" -Neely Fuller, Jr.
"The apparent triumph of the civil rights movement [...] has led us to this age when millions of young Blacks not only don’t know their rich history of rebellion and resistance; they don’t wanna know." -Mumia Abu-Jamal

P.E., KRS, and DP'z

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I chose Public Enemy as well as KRS1 for waking me up to the madness of society, and making me angry at its many injustices, but I would be remiss of I didn't credit Dead Prez's "Let's Get Free" for helping me focus that anger.

"i must admit they planted a lotta thangs in the brain and in the vein of my strain makes it hard to refrain from the host of cocaine from the whores from the flames from a post in the game, makes it hard to maintain focus, then from the glock rounds and locks and burials, the seeds that sowed get devoured by the same locust cause its a hard row to hoe if your ass dont move and the rein dont fall but the ground is dry and the roots are strong so some survive to your surprise and now i voice their cries, you got more juice than zeus slanging lightning tryin to frighten the plain dwellers of the sarangeti but get beheaded when you falsely dreaded, melanin silicone collagen injected, dissected my pride, who be the one gone get it started? we be the lionhearted without infanticide, its like that red sprite you cant imagine...not unless you looking at the canvas of life not through the peep hole of mortality, single-minded mentalities, getting paid two fold off technicalities...robbing preachers and poor righteous teachers, you a scared demon and shouldnt be allowed to spread semen, and you cowardly lions never defying the cackles of Babel...cackling, helping the shackling of your brethen happen, just by rappin, Liberator..."

Last edited by Kimani; 03-02-2006 at 12:47 PM.
Reason: remembered some more

"The problem with modern conceptualizations is it leaves no room for other sources of knowledge...The Kemetic concept approaches the process of knowing from a more 'common sense' approach. Ultimately knowing is the result of a divine, universal, and intergenerational conversation among God the creator, the cosmos, nature and the creatures of the earth, especially human beings...the process of human creativity is an imitation or rather repitition of divine creativity."--Jacob Carruthers

I used to listen to X Clan the most. Their style was very cool and original.

But Im going to mention a weird choice maybe. Rakim was the first very popular rapper to even remotely suggest anything about Black nationalism.
The "Paid in Full" album was the one that got me into Hip Hop. It was his first album but he rapped like he owned everyone.

Weird?? Nah my brother, not at all!!

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Verse one:

Follow me into a solo
Get in the flow - and you can picture like a photo
Music mixed mellow maintains to make
Melodies for mc’s motivates the breaks
I’m everlastin, I can go on for days and days
With rhyme displays that engrave deep as x-rays
I can take a phrase that’s rarely heard, flip it
Now it’s a daily word
I can get iller than ’nam, a killin bomb
But no alarm - rakim will remain calm
Self-esteem make me super superb and supreme
But for a microphone still I fiend
This was a tape I wasn’t supposed to break
I was supposed to wait, but let’s motivate
I want to see who can keep followin and swallowin
Takin the making, bitin it and borrowin
Brothers tried and others died to get the formula
But i’ma let ya sweat - you still ain’t warm
You a step away from frozen, stiff as if ya posin
Dig into my brain as the rhyme gets chosen
So follow me and were ya thinkin’ you were first?
Let’s travel at magnificent speeds around the universe
What could ya say as the earth gets further and further away
Planets are small as balls of clay
Astray into the milky way - world’s outasight
Far as the eye can see - not even a satellite
Now stop and turn around and look
As ya stare in the darkness, ya knowledge is took!
So keep starin soon ya suddenly see a star
You better follow it cause it’s the r
This is a lesson if ya guessin and if ya borrowin
Hurry hurry step right up and keep followin
The leader

Verse two:

This is a lifetime mission, vision of prison
Aight listen
In this journey you’re the journal I’m the journalist
Am I eternal? or an eternalist?
I’m about to flow long as I can possibly go
Keep ya movin cause the crowd said so
Dance - cuts rip ya pants
Eric b on the blades, bleedin to death - call the ambulance
Pull out my weapon and start to squeeze
A magnum as a microphone murderin’ mc’s
Let’s quote a rhyme from a record I wrote
(follow the leader) yeah - dope
Cause everytime I stop it seems ya stuck
Soon as ya try to step off ya self-destruct
I came to overcome before I’m gone
By showin and provin and lettin knowledge be born
Then after that I’ll live forever - you disagree?
You say never? then follow me!From century to century you’ll remember me
In history - not a mystery or a memory
God by nature, mind raised in asia
Since you was tricked, I have to raise ya
From the cradle to the grave, but remember
You’re not a slave
Cause we was put here to be much more than that
But we couldn’t see it because our mind was trapped
But I’m here to break away the chains, take away the pains
Remake the brains, reveal my name
I guess nobody told you a little knowledge is dangerous
It can’t be mixed, diluted; it can’t be changed or switched
Here’s a lesson if ya guessing and borrowing
Hurry hurry, step right up and keep following
The leader

Verse three:

A furified freestyle, lyrics of fury
My third eye makes me shine like jewelry
You’re just a rent-a-rapper, your rhymes are minute-maid
I’ll be here when it fade to watch you flip like a renegade
I can’t wait to break and eliminate
On every traitor or snake - so stay awake
And follow and follow, because the tempo’s a trail
The stage is a cage, the mic is a third rail
I’m rakim the fiend of a microphone
I’m not him, so leave my mic alone
Soon as the beat is felt, I’m ready to go
So fasten your seatbelt, cause I’m about to flow
No need to speed slow down to let the leader lead
Word to daddy, indeed!
The r’s a rollin stone, so I’m rollin
Directions is told, then the rhymes are stolen
Stop buggin’, a brother said, dig em, I never dug ’em
He couldn’t follow the leader long enough so I drug ’em
Into danger zone, he should arrange his own
Face it, it’s basic, erase it, change ya tone
There’s one r in the alphabet
It’s a one-letter word and it’s about to get
More complex from one rhyme to the next
Eric b be easy on the flex
I’ve been from state to state, followers tailgate
Keep comin but you came too late, but I’ll wait
So back up, regroup, get a grip, come equipped
You’re the next contestant - clap ya hands, you won a trip!
The price is right - don’t make a deal too soon
How many notes could you name this tune?
Follow the leader is the title, theme, task
Now ya know, you don’t have to ask
Rap is rhythm and poetry, cuts create sound effects
You might catch up if you follow the records e. wrecks
Until then keep eatin and swallowin
You better take a deep breath and keep followin
The leader.

The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.

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Assata Shakur Speaks is an Forum Devoted To Assata Shakur And All Political Prisoners Around The World. Assata Shakur Speaks Is An Oasis Of Pan African Information Geared Towards The Liberation Of Afrikan People.